a€?A long while? How long?a€?
a€?A very long while, believe me.a€?
a€?A very long while? I see.a€?
a€?Ia€™l tel you this, ita€™s been here since the Shioda girl threw herself in a long while ago.a€?
a€?You mean the Shiodas who run the hot spring inn?a€?
a€?Thata€™s right, yes.a€?
a€?You say the girl threw herself in? But shea€™s alive and wel , is she not?a€?
a€?No, not that girl. This one lived a long while ago.a€?
a€?A long while ago? When would that have been?a€?
a€?Oh, a very long while ago, believe me.a€?
a€?And why did that girl from a long while ago throw herself in here?a€?
a€?Wel , she was a beauty, you know, like the present girl is, sir. . . .a€?
a€?Ah?a€?
a€?And one day, one of them bonzes came along . . .a€?
a€?You mean a begging monk?a€?
a€?Yes, one of them bonzes that plays the bamboo flute and goes about begging. Wel , when he was staying over at Shiodaa€™s placea€”he was the vil age headman at the timea€”that beautiful young girl fel head over heels for him. Cal it karma if you wil , but at al events she wept and declared she simply had to marry him.a€?
a€?Wept, did she? Hmm.a€?
a€?But headman Shioda wouldna€™t hear of it. He said no bonze would be marrying his daughter. And in the end he cried, a€?Be off with you!a€™a€?
a€?To the monk?a€?
a€?Thata€™s right. So then the young girl, she takes off after him and comes as far as the pool herea€”and throws herself in, right over there, where you can see that pine tree. And it al caused quite a stir, I can tel you. They say she was carrying a mirror on her, and thata€™s how this pool got its name.a€?
a€?Wel , wel , so someonea€™s thrown themselves in here before, eh?a€?
a€?A dreadful business, sir.a€?
a€?How many generations back would it be, do you think?a€?
a€?Al I can say is ita€™s a good long while ago. And Ia€™l tel you another thinga€”wel , this is just between you and me, sir.a€?
a€?Whata€™s that?a€?
a€?Therea€™s been crazies in the Shiodas since generations back.a€?
a€?Fancy that.a€?
a€?Ita€™s a curse, thata€™s what it is. And the present young lady too, everyonea€™s been looking askance lately and muttering about how shea€™s gone a bit peculiar.a€?
a€?Surely thata€™s not so!a€? I exclaim with a laugh.
a€?You think not? But her mom was a bit peculiar, you know.a€?
a€?Is she at home there?a€?
a€?No, died last year.a€?
a€?Hmm,a€ I say, and make no further comment, but simply watch the thin curl of smoke rising from the end of my cigarette. Heaving the bundle of firewood onto his back again, Genbei goes on his way.
Ia€™ve come here to paint, but at this rate, with my head ful of such musings and my ear ful of such talk, days wil pass without me producing a single picture. Wel , Ia€™ve set everything up, so at least I must go through the motions and make a preliminary sketch or two. The scenery of the opposite shore wil more or less do for what I want. Ia€™l try my hand at it, just for forma€™s sake.
A blue-black rock towers ten feet or more into the air, straight up from the bottom of the pool; to the right of its sheer face, where the dark water lies in a curve at the jutting corner, dwarf bamboo crowds densely al the way down the steep mountainside to the very watera€™s edge. Above the rock a large pine tree at least three arm- spans thick thrusts its twisted, vine-clad trunk out at an angle that leans precariously half over the water.
Perhaps it was from this rock that the girl leaped, the mirror tucked in her bosom.
I settle myself before the easel and survey the elements of the scenea€”pine, dwarf bamboo, rock, and water. I cana€™t decide how much of the water to include. The rock and its shadow each measure about ten feet. One could almost believe that the luxuriance of dwarf bamboo extends beyond the watera€™s edge on down into the water, so vividly does its reflection seem to penetrate right to the bottom. As for the pine, it appears to soar as high as the eye can see, while the reflection it casts is likewise extremely long and thin. Reproducing the actual dimensions of what lies before me wouldna€™t work as a composition. Perhaps it would be interesting to give up al thought of depicting the objects themselves and simply show their reflections. People would no doubt be startled to be shown a picture consisting only of water and the reflections in it. But ita€™s pointless simply to surprise the viewer; what must surprise them is the realization that this is successful as a picture. What to do
These weird shapes alone, however, simply dona€™t resolve into a composition. Perhaps I could plan my composition around a comparison of the real objects with their reflections, so I let my gaze move slowly and
